IS OUR FAITH BASED ON CONVICTION?
The primary thoughts about our faith in Christ deal with the belief that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, and that He was sent to us with the message of the Good News of Salvation, and to be our sacrifice for sin. In order for us to have that faith, there needs to be a point in our life when we are personally convicted in our hearts that this is true. With all that we say about that in our churches today about that message we still do not deal with the point of belief very well.
We know what faith is supposed to be, and we know about obedience to God's word and commandments, but when it comes right down to our own conviction about the truth of God within our lives we tend to vacillate somewhat. I think it may be because there are many out in the world who say they believe, but yet they are not convicted within their heart that the message of Christ is real for them. This prompts me to ask " what does it take for you to be convicted within your heart that something is true?" For some of us that is a very emotional journey, and then for others, it is a very logical encounter. My concern is what does it take for you to be convicted?
I think in part it has as much to do with who you are in
the eyes of those who see you as it does about the ways you feel on the inside. If you are truly convicted that something is true you will no doubt center your life around that as truth. That truth becomes a part of our everyday routine in life and we are recognized for it. The rue conviction of a truth in our life demands some kind of action taken to assure that we are associated with that truth. I am just not seeing signs from the church in general of that kind of conviction from most people who call themselves Christian today. Having made that statement what are the things we are convicted of?
There are plenty of things that can take the place of a real conviction about the purpose and message of Jesus Christ in our lives, and they are being used at full tilt by this world in an effort to keep our minds so preoccupied that we barely have the time to think about what those convictions mean when we think about them. It ends up not being how often we are in a church service or how active we are in small groups, but what we are putting as the center part of our lives. Is it really Christ and getting close to the Father or is it the number of activities we can get involved in that make us think we are really contributing to something?
For me, it wasn't until I took a step back from the busy work and the activities that have become a part of our everyday life to "PLUG INTO" the church that I could hear the Spirit of God speaking to me about this. It is far too easy for us to take these distractions as a way of growth in Christ, and while it is fellowship and something that is good for us it simply cannot replace our need to have that very personal experience through God's Holy Spirit with Christ. The only way that can be done is through our efforts to get alone with God and close off the world around us from distractions. We cannot concentrate on hearing God whisper to our heart when we have this world screaming in our ears. I pray we can see the need to understand what we are really convicted to believe in our hearts.
May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
We know what faith is supposed to be, and we know about obedience to God's word and commandments, but when it comes right down to our own conviction about the truth of God within our lives we tend to vacillate somewhat. I think it may be because there are many out in the world who say they believe, but yet they are not convicted within their heart that the message of Christ is real for them. This prompts me to ask " what does it take for you to be convicted within your heart that something is true?" For some of us that is a very emotional journey, and then for others, it is a very logical encounter. My concern is what does it take for you to be convicted?
I think in part it has as much to do with who you are in
There are plenty of things that can take the place of a real conviction about the purpose and message of Jesus Christ in our lives, and they are being used at full tilt by this world in an effort to keep our minds so preoccupied that we barely have the time to think about what those convictions mean when we think about them. It ends up not being how often we are in a church service or how active we are in small groups, but what we are putting as the center part of our lives. Is it really Christ and getting close to the Father or is it the number of activities we can get involved in that make us think we are really contributing to something?
For me, it wasn't until I took a step back from the busy work and the activities that have become a part of our everyday life to "PLUG INTO" the church that I could hear the Spirit of God speaking to me about this. It is far too easy for us to take these distractions as a way of growth in Christ, and while it is fellowship and something that is good for us it simply cannot replace our need to have that very personal experience through God's Holy Spirit with Christ. The only way that can be done is through our efforts to get alone with God and close off the world around us from distractions. We cannot concentrate on hearing God whisper to our heart when we have this world screaming in our ears. I pray we can see the need to understand what we are really convicted to believe in our hearts.
May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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